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Franny and Zooey

3.98 of 5 stars 3.98 · rating details · 93,712 ratings · 3,291 reviews

The author writes: FRANNY came out in The New Yorker in 1955, and was swiftly followed, in 1957 by ZOOEY. Both stories are early, critical entries in a narrative series I'm doing about a family of settlers in twentieth-century New York, the Glasses. It is a long-term project, patently an ambiguous one, and there is a real-enough danger, I suppose that sooner or later I'll...more

Paperback, 201 pages

Published January 30th 2001 by Back Bay Books (first published 1961)

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Nov 05, 2010 Ben rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2010, memorable-characters, good-fiction, favorites

This is great; it really is. In many ways it’s the anti Cornwell-Patterson-Grisham-King-Coben-Brown. Franny and Zooey isn’t fast paced or plot driven; it isn’t thrilling (in the traditional sense), and its concepts aren’t surfaced-based or easy to come by (or even embraced by the mainstream populace), but Salinger didn’t write for these people; he wrote for himself and if you identified with what he wrote, good for you -- if not, so be it. Even so, it’s not flourishy or fancy; there’s nothing pr...more This is great; it really is. In many ways it’s the anti Cornwell-Patterson-Grisham-King-Coben-Brown. Franny and Zooey isn’t fast paced or plot driven; it isn’t thrilling (in the traditional sense), and its concepts aren’t surfaced-based or easy to come by (or even embraced by the mainstream populace), but Salinger didn’t write for these people; he wrote for himself and if you identified with what he wrote, good for you -- if not, so be it. Even so, it’s not flourishy or fancy; there’s nothing pretentious about it. There is a general disdain for snobbery running through its veins.

“You raved and you bitched when you came home about the stupidity of audiences. The goddam 'unskilled laughter' coming from the fifth row. And that's right, that's right -- God knows it's depressing. I'm not saying it isn't. But that's none of your business, really. That's none of your business, Franny. An artist's only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else's.”

Franny and Zooey would be have been prescient if it were written today. Salinger’s kooky, wacky sense of humor; his accuracy with individualized thought; his passion for non-conformity and for the individual, are all unmatched, even today. In retrospect of all we know and can (now) see of his time period, Salinger's poking and mocking of (then current) society, make Franny and Zooey seem like it was written (brilliantly) today.

Maybe it's because this book has to do with an older brother and younger sister (I’m an older brother), or maybe it's because I know how much some of my friends love this novel, but I felt rushes of something like nostalgia during my reading; some kind of sentimentality or appreciation for my friends that love this. (If you think you can’t get sentimental over a Salinger novel, you’re obviously not part of the group that loves him -- you can’t be). And while I don’t love Salinger the way some of my friends do*, I sure as fuck appreciate him, and I sure as fuck had an absolute blast reading Franny and Zooey-- my new favorite Salinger novel.

*Whether he’s one of your favorite authors or not, if you’re of the breed that can indentify with Salinger's thinking -- and can maybe even see some similarities between you and some of his characters -- you feel a love for this man.
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Jan 31, 2013 Mariel rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: and she gave away the secrets of her past

Recommended to Mariel by: and she expressed herself in many different ways

I'll tell you one thing, Franny. One thing I know. And don't get upset. It isn't anything bad. But if it's the religious life you want, you ought to know right now that you're missing out on every single goddam religious action that's going on around this house. You don't even have sense enough to drink when somebody brings you a cup of consecrated chicken soup- which is the only kind of chicken soup Bessie ever brings to anybody around this madhouse. So you just tell me, just tell me, buddy. E

...more

I'll tell you one thing, Franny. One thing I know. And don't get upset. It isn't anything bad. But if it's the religious life you want, you ought to know right now that you're missing out on every single goddam religious action that's going on around this house. You don't even have sense enough to drink when somebody brings you a cup of consecrated chicken soup- which is the only kind of chicken soup Bessie ever brings to anybody around this madhouse. So you just tell me, just tell me, buddy. Even if you went out and searched the whole world for a master- some guru, some boly man- to tell you how to say your Jesus Prayer properly, what good would it do you? How in hell are you going to recognize a legitimate holy man when you see one if you don't even know a cup of consecrated chicken soup when it's right in front of your nose? Can you tell me that?

What Zooey says to Franny in the last part of Franny and Zooey is maybe the most wonderful thing I have read. I have been slowly rerereading F&Z all day, wanting to get to what Zooey says to Franny. Afraid, a little, to get there if I didn't have Franny's joyful smile at the ceiling. You know when someone is right and if you cannot accept that light maybe it is going to be dark forever.

But I'll tell you a terrible secret- Are you listening to me? There isn't anyone out there who isn't Seymour's Fat Lady. That includes your Professor Tupper, buddy. And all his goddam cousins by dozens. There isn't anyone anywhere that isn't Seymour's Fat Lady. Don't you know that? Don't you know that goddam secret yet? And don't you know- listen to me, now- don't you know who that Fat Lady really is? ... Ah, buddy. Ah, buddy. It's Christ himself. Christ himself, buddy.

I could read what Zooey says forever if I had to. It's hard to remember it sometimes when you get lost. My friend Kristen had to tell me something about this kind of grief once. When you know, can understand suicide and it doesn't change the gut. The loss. It's not about understanding it, or having the words. It's love, taking it away. It's not reasoned and you can know it and mourn it at the same time. She said something better than the way I'm putting it. It was a long time ago but I need to remember it now. I've been obsessed for months now with something David Grossman said about how writing is the only place where the thing and the loss of it can co-exist. I don't know how to do it, yet, at least not all the way. I have this idea that if I could figure out how to have the thing and the loss of it that things would be okay. Understanding in my head is not hard for me. I have been that person too. My cousin may die. It is her fourth attempt in two years. If you know about what Kate Gompert says in Infinite Jest then you'll know why I found it so chilling. My cousin said words so much the same, those words that aren't mine so I can't say them, and needed the electric shock treatment. It was her hope. She looked forward to it and lived with me so she could get it here. I could not want her to live like that. It doesn't stop me from feeling this pain. I am so scared. I watched her for months in 2011/2012 on my couch in a deadened existence. She slept all of the time and I hardly slept at all. I know about the no words can help thing. I didn't try to say anything and I wasn't going to leave. She did tell my grandmother that I didn't treat her as if she was crazy helped. There was no chance I was ever going to treat her like she was crazy. That was all I could do and I don't blame myself. I'm not close with her. I haven't heard a word from her in almost a year. And I turned to J.D. Salinger. (I could feel like Zooey with his reading material too. I felt inside so much that I wanted to be Zooey and not me. He knows what to do.) I can't stop thinking about the Glass family. Something about them that I have loved for so much of my life is how their past and present lives seem to go on at the same time. Like it could be Grossman's the thing and the loss of it co-existing. Seymour killed himself and he knew about the fat lady. I came to terms with this a long time ago (if I'm going to continue to survive my family and suicide I don't know what else to do but learn how to do this). When it happens and every other time are not the same time. I know it from myself and I know it from others. I also know that it doesn't do anything to take away the permanent falling in my stomach. Just missing and love and I don't feel selfish because I don't feel any kind of asking in my heart. It's not for me. I can't think past fear.

So the way that their family lives on at the same time. I'm going to try it right now. This is something I had with my cousin (and her little brother. She is eight years younger than me and he ten my junior). When they were kids I babysat them. Most of the time these afternoons turned all night because certain people never came back when they said they were going to (totally illegal, by the way). I made up all kinds of stories for them. My twin did too. We'd invent together sometimes. It was the best feeling, really, to do that. But what I loved and want to remember now is that for years afterwards, even when they were adults, they'd bring up these stories any time they saw me. They'd ask to hear them again. I wouldn't remember anything about it, either. "Remember the one when..." Best. feeling. ever. Some times things are so damned hard I don't know what I'm going to do but I can remember that still. I don't want to repeat the stories here because I couldn't ever think they were good. But it meant a lot to me that they thought they did. It's something to be remembered like that even though I come from a family that never asks or tells anything. You can find out that she was in an abusive relationship and not doing well and last you heard she was with some great guy and all was good. I know in my head there's no such thing as right words. I know in my gut that one time those kids had the right words for me. It can happen. And yeah, the Seymour's fat lady. I know everyone who loves Franny & Zooey loves that. Franny falls apart and says the Lord's prayer. If you say whomever your lords name is over and over something is bound to happen. You are bound to be heard sooner or later if you just keep saying it. Something will happen. A miracle? What if you just remember them and then the name is the miracle. You can feel divorced from the world and not trust that anyone else is Seymour's Fat Lady. I really love Salinger. I got the same feeling when I reread Raise High the Roofbeams, Carpenter & Seymour that the world was people who could be your family. And if everyone is Jesus that is something. I don't want to start thinking that there's right words you could say to fix it. But when Zooey does it... It happened. I don't care if I'm in the land of oversharing for some people, either. Because I truly believe that people are Seymour's Fat Lady. Sure, words aren't going to fix it and knowing and the heart aren't going to fix each other. So, have them at the same time. Next time I could be Franny again and there's the chance again to listen to Zooey. Just an amazing book.

P.s. I changed my rating to a five from a four because you love what you love when it isn't perfect. I felt suffocated by Bessie and I wasn't in love until Zooey talks but I NEEDED it. Right words, right?(less)

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Mar 15, 2013 Mike Puma rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: the literarily inclined

Shelves: 2013

The blurb above, by the author, suggests that the two ‘stories’ included in this volume are, in fact, separate stories. Wikipedia, the source of all information easily obtained, and perhaps even correct and/or true, suggests the volume contains a short story and a novella. I, and others, will suggest to you that, regardless of origin and intent, this volume works very well as a novel. Nothing I’d care to fight over, argue about, or stake reputation on, just sayin.’

In the Franny section (chapter)

...more

In the Franny section (chapter), we meet a giddy Franny Glass, through a letter announcing her excitement to be seeing soon and love for, one Lane Coutell, Lit major. Very shortly after her arrival, her enthusiasm wanes, a wariness of phonyism (a la Holden Caulfield) is voiced, and both may have something to do with a newfound interest in constant prayer.

In the Zooey section (chapter), Buddy Glass, the narrator, describes the circumstances of his writing the stories of the Glass siblings, the concerns voiced by the three Glass family members who are the main characters in his ‘prose home movie,’ and reintroduces himself through a letter to his brother Zooey, who reads the letter while soaking in the bathtub before several confrontational exchanges with Franny and their mother, Bessie, on matters of family, religion, art, performance (action), and, yes, love. Acting matters. Embodiment matters. The world’s a stage, and so is the parlor. Let there be lights, camera, action. Amazing.

“Don’t you know that? Don’t you know that goddam secret yet? And don’t you know—listen to me, now—don’t you know who that Fat Lady really is?. . . Ah, buddy. Ah buddy. It’s Christ Himself. Christ Himself, buddy.”

I read this to be familiar with title given its prominence in the beginning section of Postmodern Belief: American Literature and Religion Since 1960, by Amy Hungerford. A very interesting classroom discussion of F&Z by Hungerford, full of the spoilers I’ve omitted, may be found here. My advice with regard to the video is to read the story first, then to avoid some classroom rubric, skip to about 8.5 mins.

Go for it, esp. if you were forced to read The Catcher in the Rye in school and were left wondering what the all the Salinger fuss is about.

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May 30, 2007 Lee rated it 5 of 5 stars

I am a huge JD Salinger fan, and I'm one of those people who's read "Catcher in the Rye" like 200 times, several times a year since I was about twelve. I buy into every cliche said about it: it changed my life, it made me want to write, it validated my own teen angst, Salinger captures teen-speak amazingly well, Holden Caulfield is vulnerable and wise, a kid-hero, etc. I have such an emotional attachment to the book that I find it hard to tolerate much criticism of it. Case in point: I recently...more I am a huge JD Salinger fan, and I'm one of those people who's read "Catcher in the Rye" like 200 times, several times a year since I was about twelve. I buy into every cliche said about it: it changed my life, it made me want to write, it validated my own teen angst, Salinger captures teen-speak amazingly well, Holden Caulfield is vulnerable and wise, a kid-hero, etc. I have such an emotional attachment to the book that I find it hard to tolerate much criticism of it. Case in point: I recently came across an article written by Jonathan Yardley in 2004 for the Washington Post entitled "J.D. Salinger's Holden Caulfield, Aging Gracelessly". One of the best quotes from the piece:

"Rereading 'The Catcher in the Rye' after all those years was almost literally a painful experience: The combination of Salinger's execrable prose and Caulfield's jejune narcissism produced effects comparable to mainlining castor oil."

Ouch. Double ouch because I had to look up "jejune".

This article prompted me to delve deeper into the Salinger canon, and I resurfaced holding "Franny & Zooey". Yardley may have prompted me to question my devotion, but this book cemented what I already knew: JD Salinger is a wonderful writer and his characters are the written equivalent of crack. You just can't get enough.

"Franny & Zooey" is one of several books/short stories written about the Glass family. There are seven Glass kids, all of whom were, at various points, panelists on a radio quiz show with the best name ever: "It's A Wise Child".

"Franny & Zooey" focuses on the two youngest siblings, hence the title, who are both in the midst of emotional and existential breakdowns. Franny, away at college in Boston, has read a book called "The Way of the Pilgrim, which has instilled in her an obsession with the concept of "praying without ceasing". Suddenly, everything around her is meaningless, she can't study or eat or sleep, and returns to New York to recouperate. Zooey is a sometimes-working actor, determined to help his sister.

The book touches on familiar Salinger-esque themes, including relgious devotion/fanaticism, kids vs. adults, a potentially meaningless world, etc. This book explores religion in an engaging, relatable way. Franny's qustions are universal and Zooey's answers are valid.

Authorities on the Glass Family will appreciate the insight into the unit, particularly into eldest brothers Seymour (who at that point has already committed suicide) and Buddy, who narrates the story. Zooey blames them for using himself and Franny as philosphical guinea pigs, pumping them full from the time they were toddlers with vast and varied dogma simply to see what would stick.

All of that said, I think the most important thing about this book, and all of Salinger's books, is its pure, joyful readability. "Franney & Zooey" contains passages that are absolutely HILARIOUS, specifically the extensive conversation between Zooey and his nagging mother, Bessie, that takes place in the bathroom. I was laughing out loud throughout.

He's been called the voice of several generations, but Salinger's ability to maintain belly-laugh-worthy humor while touching on such dark themes might be the most notable (and most underappreciated) thing about him.(less)

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Sep 16, 2007 Jason rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: no one

If you liked Catcher in the Rye more than your average novel, then you probably have considered reading Franny and Zooey. It's one of very few books that J.D. Salinger wrote because he kind of turned into a weird old recluse. I was really excited about reading this. I expected big things. Needless to say, I was very disappointed.
Problem number one: Zooey, who is essentially the "protagonist" (or one of two main characters) is pretty much identical to the main character from Catcher in the Rye, H...more

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Feb 08, 2013 Seth Hahne rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: bookclub

I am the luckiest person in the world. The last few months have led me through an unbroken string of good books. I have had so much fun reading that I'm just in love with books right now.

And isn't that the way it should be?

In any case, Salinger's Franny and Zooey is the most recent in what I hope will be a continuing tradition of engaging, well-written stories. I have to admit I approached the work with some skepticism, having been wholly uninterested in Catcher in the Rye when it was forced up...more

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Oct 20, 2012 ·Karen· rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: mttbr-2012

"Well you are stupid Mum, you are one of the most stupid people I know, really what were you thinking when you decided to even read this for God's sake." Lights another cigarette. "I mean to say, for God's sake, it's full of this kind of histrionic dialogue with incessant overuse of italics, and the people in it don't so much speak as hold forth as if they were on the stage somewhere for God's sake, and they just go on and on about Jesus and chakras and anahata and all this goddam mystical stuff...more

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Apr 17, 2013 Chiara Pagliochini rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: letteratura-americana

« Accidenti, » disse, « ce ne sono di cose belle al mondo. E quando dico belle intendo belle. Siamo degli idioti a svicolare sempre dalle cose. Sempre, sempre, sempre lì ad annotare tutti gli accidenti che capitano al nostro piccolo e schifoso io ».

Capitano, talvolta, degli incidenti straordinari. Tu sei lì con la guardia abbassata, a carezzare il tuo piccolo e schifoso io, e d’un tratto le parole giuste ti cascano tra capo e collo come una secchiata d’acqua fredda (o meglio, come un confortant...more « Accidenti, » disse, « ce ne sono di cose belle al mondo. E quando dico belle intendo belle. Siamo degli idioti a svicolare sempre dalle cose. Sempre, sempre, sempre lì ad annotare tutti gli accidenti che capitano al nostro piccolo e schifoso io ».

Capitano, talvolta, degli incidenti straordinari. Tu sei lì con la guardia abbassata, a carezzare il tuo piccolo e schifoso io, e d’un tratto le parole giuste ti cascano tra capo e collo come una secchiata d’acqua fredda (o meglio, come un confortante tè caldo quando sei raffreddata). La risposta che cercavi da settimane… ti basta allungare la mano per prenderla. E tutto avviene con una tale disinvoltura, una tale generosità da questo disinteressato signor Salinger che non puoi fare a meno di rivolgergli un sorriso dolcissimo, tra le lacrime che già t’ha fatto scendere.
Ho raccolto questo libro con me durante un viaggio in autobus. La copertina, sul retro, non svela nulla della trama. L’ho scelto dalla pila dei non-letti unicamente perché sembrava abbastanza leggero da tenere in borsa. Eppure, per qualche buffa coincidenza, non avrei potuto leggere questo breve romanzo in un momento migliore.

Non avrei potuto leggerlo in un momento migliore perché anch’io, come la Franny che si affaccia nel titolo, sto attraversando « un esaurimento nervoso di quart’ordine », per dirla con le parole del fratello Zooey. Non mi sono messa in testa di aggiustare il mio mondo biascicando ininterrottamente una preghiera a Dio, ma ho appuntato in un quaderno il proposito (altrettanto insano) di fare più torte e più passeggiate. Anch’io, come Franny, « sono stufa di tutti questi ego, ego, ego. Del mio e di quello di tutti gli altri. Sono stufa della gente che vuol “arrivare” da qualche parte, fare qualcosa di notevole eccetera, essere un tipo interessante. É disgustoso, disgustoso e basta. Me ne infischio di quello che dicono. [...] Sono stufa di non avere il coraggio di essere nessuno e basta. Sono stufa di me e di tutti quelli che vogliono fare colpo, in un modo o nell’altro ». Sono preda, cioè, di una cieca, distruttiva misantropia, che non risparmia me stessa né gli altri e che sento destinata a portarmi rannicchiata in posizione fetale sul divano, con mamma che mi spinge sotto il naso una tazza di brodo di pollo e un gatto grasso avvolto nel plaid.
Essere Franny non è piacevole per Franny né per coloro che la circondano: è avvolgersi in una cappa di ritrosia e inerzia, volersi del male e voler male agli altri perché non ci si ama più. Avere paura di amarsi, soprattutto, paura che stimarsi il giusto sia di per sé un atto di narcisismo, che dare una valutazione, per quanto oggettiva, delle proprie capacità sia necessariamente una dimostrazione di superbia intellettuale. Conseguentemente, disistimarsi e, quello che riesce di meno, simulare una umiltà che caratterialmente non si possiede, per poi esplodere, di tanto in tanto, in commenti di una sentenziosità caustica e faziosa.
C’è in Franny qualcosa dell’Holden, ma c’è soprattutto Franny, un personaggio a tutto tondo, così vivo che quasi pare di poterci uscire per un caffè. E la vitalità, l’assoluta realisticità sono quello che di più colpisce nella creazione cesellata di qualsiasi personaggio: da Lane, ragazzo di Franny (che, nella sua spocchia da studente di college, fa quasi tenerezza) alla signora Glass, madre di Franny, Zooey e degli altri fratelli Glass, vestaglia e sigaretta, dispensatrice di brodi, pragmatica e vigile.
Parole a parte merita la straordinaria figura di Zooey, che emerge dalla pagina con tutta una gestualità e un modo di parlare, un affabulatore così affascinante, un provocatore così sofisticato, che davvero balza su dalle righe per dialogare col lettore.

I fratelli Glass sono accomunati da una straordinaria intelligenza e, quel che più conta, da una certa voracità di conoscenza. Tutti e sette, dal 1927 al 1943, hanno preso parte a un programma radiofonico intitolato “Bambino eccezionale”, da cui (è legittimo dirlo) non si sono mai più ripresi. Sono cresciuti cercando di meritare sempre il titolo di “bambini eccezionali”, di essere all’altezza del proprio passato di piccoli geni e di quello dei fratelli. Puntellano, nonostante gli anni e i colpi del sistema, una certa idea di sé che hanno costruito nella prima infanzia, un’idea di superiorità intellettuale ma anche di anormalità. È Zooey stesso a definire lui e Franny degli “anormali”. Illuminanti, a tal proposito, le parole della signora Glass: « Non capisco proprio a cosa serva sapere tante cose ed essere tanto intelligenti e così via, se non riuscite a essere felici ». Una frase con cui ciascuna madre – specialmente la mia – potrebbe uscirsene da un momento all’altro.

Il cuore del romanzo è una conversazione tra Franny e Zooey, sollecitato dalla madre a “fare un discorsetto” alla sorella minore. Niente di straordinario, nessuna evoluzione pirotecnica nella trama. Con grande spontaneità Salinger ci invita a prender parte a un esercizio per cambiare il nostro angolo prospettico, le nostre lenti di osservazione del mondo. Vogliamo guardarlo con la lente del nostro ego affaticato, acuto e schifato dalla realtà? Vogliamo schifarci di tutto e di tutto spogliarci? O vogliamo, al contrario, pensare che in ognuno di quelli che schifiamo e da cui vogliamo allontanarci c’è magari un piccolo ego costretto in spoglie che non gli appartengono, un ego piangente e solo? Vogliamo essere autoreferenziali, pensare di poter cavarcela da soli, o vogliamo, per il bene nostro e degli altri, esercitare (verso noi stessi e verso gli altri) la funzione straordinaria della generosità?
Ecco, nelle parole gentili, ironiche, provocatorie che Zooey rivolge a Franny io ci ho visto tutta la lunga ed elaborata risposta che cercavo da giorni. Risposta che né amici né parenti erano riusciti a fornirmi in modo così spiritoso, esaustivo e ben scritto.

Ben scritto, occorre sottolinearlo, perché questo breve romanzo è anche un gioiellino di bella scrittura, scrittura intelligente e raffinata, vivace ed eclettica, dotata di una grandiosa lucidità di analisi e di un piglio dinamicissimo nelle descrizioni. Un Salinger che non mi ha fatto in alcun modo rimpiangere “Il giovane Holden” e di cui ho deciso, da ora in avanti, di divorare metodicamente la produzione.
Magari si potesse avere un piccolo Zooey così saggio, formato statuina, da mettere sul comodino quando si sta male. Nel caso ne trovaste uno, sapete cosa regalarmi per il compleanno. (less)

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Aug 06, 2009 Megha rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviews

Yesterday was the day of Rakshabandhan, an Indian festival celebrating the relationship between brothers and sisters, and I spent this day a few thousand miles away from my siblings. Last night I spent 2 hours at the dinner table talking to my roommate about those years when I used to celebrate Rakshabandhan at home with my sister and brother, about the years when we were growing up together. After yesterday's somewhat long dinner, I picked up Franny and Zooey from the page where I had left it t...more

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May 09, 2012 Steve rated it 4 of 5 stars

Something my Uncle Bob once told me about his days as a competitive bridge player always stuck with me. He said the further he got into it, and the more advanced the players were, the less fun it all became. I guess at some level it got to be a serious business – one where everyone wanted to show that they were as smart as or smarter than all the other laser-focused competitors. Any social element of the game was beside the point, or worse still, a distraction. J.D. Salinger’s idée fixe for many...more Something my Uncle Bob once told me about his days as a competitive bridge player always stuck with me. He said the further he got into it, and the more advanced the players were, the less fun it all became. I guess at some level it got to be a serious business – one where everyone wanted to show that they were as smart as or smarter than all the other laser-focused competitors. Any social element of the game was beside the point, or worse still, a distraction. J.D. Salinger’s idée fixe for many years, the Glass family, was a lot like that in the game of life, it seems. They had plenty of insights, but not much in the way of joy. Is this a disappointment? Maybe a little. The natural tendency is to use smart people as guides, but that’s not always wise.

The Basic Plot

Franny and Zooey were the youngest of seven siblings. All of them, when they were young, were stars on a radio quiz show. Beyond a command of the facts, they could also be witty and engaging on cue. In the first of the book’s two stories, Franny is a college student visiting a boyfriend of sorts for the big Yale game. Her date’s hopes for a nice show-off weekend were thwarted, though, when Franny’s vague peevishness grows into a spiritual crisis. She ultimately passes out. The first story mostly just sets the stage for the more important second story. That one starts with Zooey, a part-time actor in his mid-twenties, having a snarky conversation with his mom while he takes a long bath. This segment establishes his character as one who thinks he knows everything, actually does know a lot, suffers fools less than gladly, and seems to consider his mother one of the fools. At least he shows some concern for his younger sister who is now home. Finally dressed and ready for his day of nothing much, we get to the meat of the story. He prods Franny for the details leading to her breakdown. She’s reluctant to say much at first, but Zooey persists. We discover what’s bothering her (people, essentially, and her place in the world among them), what her attempted solution is (repeating the Jesus Prayer – Lord Jesus have mercy on me – until a Zen-like state and oneness with Christ is achieved), and Zooey’s appraisal of this (that it’s not exclusively a Christian phenomenon she’s going for or even a religious one). Then Zooey tells her (and us) a more pertinent homily, one that their oldest brother Seymour had told about being your best for the fat lady (= the every-schlub in the radio audience who wants reasons to admire them). And you know what? (You may or may not consider this a spoiler.) (view spoiler)

Sorting It All Out

It’s hard to know my own mind with this impactful little book. Since it’s clear that Salinger relates strongly to these gifted, knowing characters, my view of the story becomes almost more of an assessment of the author himself. What do we make of the charges leveled against him as a pretentious elitist and bourgeoisie basher? That’s even harder for me to figure. Certainly, F&Z can be evaluated with those same traits in mind. In addition, the author and the book share themes relating to the cult of celebrity, reclusiveness, and Buddhist philosophy. But the key for me is figuring how effectively F, Z, and JD rise above their innate disdain for the common man. It’s easy to see how the elitism of others – a kind less honestly come by – is shot down. Lane Coutell, Franny’s date for the football weekend, was a pseudo-intellectual who thought very well of himself for his discourse on Flaubert. I think we’re meant to relate this to the phoniness that another Salinger character famously berated. But what about the smarter-than-thou Glasses? They’re the truly clever ones, right? Their cerebral attainment is not pseudo (though I suspect it’s all relative). On the face of it, Salinger’s fat lady solution has them on the right track – accepting of mankind despite its middlebrow flab. Does Seymour’s soft glowing light bulb suddenly mean their disaffected days are behind them? Even if we do accept their conversion, might there be something just a tad condescending about it? I think I need to read more of the Glass stories to round out my view. What I will venture to say, though, is that the changes in attitude still seem unlikely to bring them much wonder and joy.

In a sense, we might view this book as meta-elitism. I wonder what that would make my critique of it? If you’re thinking your own critique of my critique would be anti-meta-meta-elitism, let me remind you that, at least in this context, there’s a fine line between anti- and meta-. ;-) Anyway, getting to the bottom line, I figure a book that generates this much debate with myself must be pretty good.
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Mar 23, 2012 ~Geektastic~ rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 20th-century-classics, tbr-challenge-2012, owned, dysfunctional, 2012, reviewed

I just don’t know how I feel about Franny and Zooey. I really don’t. I read it a couple of weeks ago and couldn’t write anything about it, as I couldn’t decide if I loved it, just liked it or absolutely hated it. I can rule out hating it I suppose, as I finished it and I never finish books that I truly despise. And I don’t think I loved it. I’m pretty sure I didn’t. My overall reaction, by process of elimination, is a general ambivalence. Part of my issue here is the damn star rating. Two makes...more I just don’t know how I feel about Franny and Zooey. I really don’t. I read it a couple of weeks ago and couldn’t write anything about it, as I couldn’t decide if I loved it, just liked it or absolutely hated it. I can rule out hating it I suppose, as I finished it and I never finish books that I truly despise. And I don’t think I loved it. I’m pretty sure I didn’t. My overall reaction, by process of elimination, is a general ambivalence. Part of my issue here is the damn star rating. Two makes it seem like it wasn’t worth the time, and being so short it would have to have been really terrible to not warrant a couple of hours of my day. Three makes it seem like I like it and would recommend it, and I’m not sure that’s the way I want to go either. I’m going to go ahead and try to write this review, and hopefully by doing so I’ll come up with a genuine opinion by the time I am finished.

I generally like to start these things off with a synopsis; it helps me put things in perspective and highlights the most notable aspects of the story. But even here I’m stumped, as there isn’t much plot to work with. F&Z consists of two separate but linked short stories that were originally published a couple of years apart. The eponymous characters are brother and sister, the youngest siblings in a privileged and eccentric New York family, who both appear to be suffering from an overload of existential angst and the pressures of being “gifted.”

We first meet Franny Glass on a lunch date with her college beau, an unremarkable 1950’s college intellectual stereotype. It gradually becomes evident that she is experiencing some sort of mental crisis. Nearly the entire episode is a conversation by which we receive hints that Franny’s behavior is being influenced by an odd religious book she has been carrying around with her. Over the course of the meal, definite shades of Holden Caufield emerge in Franny’s disdain for academia, only rather than railing against the wholesale phoniness of adults, she attacks the pretension and self-involvement of the academic world (not that the two concepts are all that different). I’ll just say, I find Franny’s rejection of self-involvement to be a little ironic, as it’s her own existential crisis and subsequent self-obsession that seems to be prompting her dissatisfaction in the first place. Franny’s tale is the shorter of the two, and it leaves off without any real resolution to the questions it has provoked.

Zooey Glass is a conflicted, self-absorbed “genius” actor who is still trying to live up to the promise of his precocious childhood while coping with the family skeletons that are collecting dust in the corners of the nostalgia-riddled Glass home. Unlike “Franny,” which doesn’t stand alone well, “Zooey” is a tiny universe of its own; in less than 100 pages, we learn all of the significant history of the family. The story opens with Zooey reading a letter from his older brother; a long, rambling correspondence that contains an oblique history of the Glass family in its slowly crumbling pages. Here I have to give Salinger credit for stuffing so much exposition into a letter and managing to make it one of the most engaging parts of the story. The fact that Buddy Glass wrote such a long letter in the 1950’s, when written correspondence was on its way out of vogue, says something about the eccentric nature of the Glass family. Also, the secrets revealed so early in the story are an expert set-up for the deluge of self-analysis to follow. Another high point: Mrs. Glass, the classic downtrodden Catholic matriarch of a strange and conflicted family. She worries, she smokes, she complains and she intrudes, but she also clearly loves her ungrateful, troubled brood.

We spend a while with Zooey as he reads his brother’s letter in the bath (he’s vain, that Zooey) and interacts, rather unpleasantly, with his mother. After we get to know him, and in my case dislike him more than a little, we discover that Franny’s story will continue within Zooey’s, because they are essentially dealing with the same thing and our time with Zooey and his letter has shown us what is most likely driving Franny’s apparent mania. Both are trying to move forward after a bizarre childhood education and brief notoriety as “gifted” children, all the while surrounded by the artifacts of that time and the knowledge that one of their siblings couldn’t shake these things and move on the way they so desperately want (and need) to. There is a quiet and not-so-quiet desperation in The Conversation that Zooey instigates with his sister. And instigation is an important distinction here; Zooey loves to hear himself talk, and he also loves to provoke. The Conversation generally consists of Zooey obnoxiously, but not entirely ineffectually, prodding Fanny’s mind like a tongue worries a sore tooth.

The Conversation is the bulk of the “story.” It boils down to a strange juxtaposition of self-involved privilege and genuinely problematic psychological issues. Are they just poor little rich kids? Sometimes it seems so, but there is undoubtedly a darkness to the exchange that keeps it from sinking completely under the combined weight of Zooey’s narcissism and Franny’s naivete. There are revelations embedded in their talk, muted but somewhat startling insights into the nature of the Glass family history and its legacy for the youngest generation. Psychoanalysis was the fad of the day, and there are definite shades of self-diagnosis and justification going on, particularly in Zooey. Franny is flailing and searching, demanding some kind of solid truth from the world and retreating from it at the same time, while her brother turns the search inward and tries to rouse Franny to do the same.

There is no real progress or resolution. It rambles, we listen. I found much of it interesting, but it was difficult to divorce my interest in what was being discussed with how little I liked Franny or Zooey. They did, in the end, seem like privileged kids with barely relatable problems. But at the same time, I found myself undeniably fascinated with the Glass family as an entity. The past hangs heavily over the family, and the youngest children haven’t figured out how to carry the weight. The fact that Zooey is prompting, or rather, forcing Fanny to think about it all is at least one step in the right direction for their mental survival, but I don’t know if I really bought the “ah ha” moment at the end. Franny’s bizarre obsession seems alien, a construct to initiate The Conversation rather than a genuine attempt to relieve some sort of hazy dissatisfaction with the world. I suppose it is intended to carry some sort of symbolism about human struggle and the strange ways we find solace, as well as reflect on the unconventional Glass family itself, but it felt forced and pretentious. Then again, pretention seems to be the Glass forte, with the children all railing against something with their pseudo-intellectual analysis of everything and their borrowed, threadbare spirituality. There is something very familiar, very 1950’s about all of this, but not having much experience with writing from that time I can’t quite put my finger on it.

So I have essentially reached the end of my ramble, and I still feel the same ambivalence. Which is perhaps for the best, as that is pretty much how this book pans out. There is no resolution; nothing definitive really happens. I guess I’ll go ahead and give this one a 3, since it interested me enough to prompt this long-winded analysis, but I still feel pretty up in the air about it. I think I will try to read some of Salinger’s other stories and get a better grasp on the Glass family and Salinger’s style.
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Jan 31, 2010 Ellen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: novels, young-adult

Edited to include visual: "Disaffected Young Adult," which is a picture of MFSO, used with his permission, with the following explanation (in his words): "I refer to it [the picture:] as 'Too Much Fun' and that it's from the end of my first year in college in the summer of 2004 while in the midst of three days with no sleep or food and a lot of chemicals."

* * *

As a former Salinger aficionado, I wanted to look back and consider how I felt about Salinger now.

In Salinger’s two-part novel, Franny an...more

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view all 59 comments

Janet Lynch His reputation might have been a fluke. He developed a cult following, which he just as easily could not have developed. Speaking of not publishing du...more
Jul 07, 2010 05:10pm

Moira Russell Ellen wrote: "I pondered why Stieg Larsson completed three fairly long books without having submitted any prior to his death. "

Actually the official w...more
Jul 07, 2010 05:48pm

Jul 12, 2010 Jasmine rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: american

Okay I am finally going to admit that I am never going to finish this book. That's right I can't bring myself to finish reading a classic book that is only 100 pages long. But I just can't stand to have Salinger break my heart again. I am now going to make everyone hate me but reading him is like reading Stephen King for me. I start the book and I am so happy and I think it's great and then he disappoints me so throughly that I want to throw him out a window.

Okay lets start from the beginning I...more

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Jan 06, 2013 Lavinia rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2004-and-older, 2008, fiction, 2009, in-en, 2013

Awesome 4th reading. It took me ten sittings or so to finish it this time, which is unusual, but it also gave me time to chew and digest things differently. It was all about religion and Eastern philosophy this time, though I don't have the time or the mood to delve deeper into it. I started a few articles on S. and his religious interests, though. What struck me most, probably, was how wonderful a play this could have been. Think of all that lovely sharp dialogue and the simple yet wonderful se...more

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Feb 18, 2008 Stephanie rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: you

Recommended to Stephanie by: Ryan Vande Kraats

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This is one of my favorite books of all time. Think, The Royal Tenenbaums as a novel. Essentially, the book is three long conversations in the Glass family: seven precocious children who, at one time, held a 30-some year dynasty on a television program for child geniuses, “It’s a Wise Child”.

Like Catcher in the Rye, it’s an argument against asceticism, a push for being active in a broken, phoney world; however, a more foundational, philosophical, spiritual approach. Whereas Catcher puts forth t...more This is one of my favorite books of all time. Think, The Royal Tenenbaums as a novel. Essentially, the book is three long conversations in the Glass family: seven precocious children who, at one time, held a 30-some year dynasty on a television program for child geniuses, “It’s a Wise Child”.

Like Catcher in the Rye, it’s an argument against asceticism, a push for being active in a broken, phoney world; however, a more foundational, philosophical, spiritual approach. Whereas Catcher puts forth the questions, Franny and Zooey answers them, but not without true wrestling, not till the very end.

Summary
First conversation is Franny with her boyfriend, Lane. Lane is pretentious and college-boy scholarly. Franny is sick of ego and knowledge for knowledge’s sake. She’s even giving up college theater. Lane accuses her of just not wanting to compete. Franny wants wisdom, something that surpasses the acquisitiveness of the world, whether that be materialism or scholarship. Franny says, “I’m sick of not having the courage to be an absolute nobody.” She is reading a book about a mystical pilgrim who recites the “Jesus Prayer.” As a way to pray incessantly, it’s supposed to become a part of you, live in sync with your heartbeat, develop your third eye so you can see God. The book, incidentally, belonged to her oldest brother, Seymour, the clearest headed Glass child, who has died.

Next conversation is her brother Zooey (Zachary) and their mother Bessie, who Franny and Zooey call by first name. He’s a young actor, reading a script, which he hates, while in the bathtub. Bessie insists on talking to him in the bathroom. Very funny conversation. She is upset about Franny’s breakdown, upset because she can’t reach their older brother, Buddy, because he has no phone (though he maintains a line in his and Seymour’s old bedroom, a sentimental leftover). She pleads with Zooey to talk to Franny who won’t leave the couch, reciting her Jesus Prayer. He keeps asking her to leave. He overstates and indulges everything he has to say with wit—calling the bathroom his chapel, where people are invited to come and chat.

Last conversation is between Franny and Zooey. Franny says he’s tactless, he insists he’s just “brisk”. He takes shots at her new asceticism, calling it just another kind of acquisition, a spiritual kind. He points to her inconsistencies. Though Franny dislikes her professor, who works to serve his own ego, says Zooey, she upholds Emily Dickinson. Point being, there is still good work to be done, ego or no. He charges Zooey with using the prayer as a “substitute for doing whatever the hell your duty is in life”. He says she ought to at least say the prayer to Jesus. Because if you don’t see Jesus, you miss the whole point of the prayer. Jesus was, says Zooey, the best man in the Bible because “he knew that we’re carrying the Kingdom of Heaven around with us, inside, where we’re all too goddam stupid and sentimental and unimaginative to look.”

At this, Franny goes into a tailspin, face down. Zooey regrets his edge and leaves, eventually going into Seymour and Buddy’s old room and calling Franny on the extra phone line, as Buddy. They talk for awhile before Zooey’s wit gives him away, still, they continue. Zooey apologizes, but maintains that, with this prayer, Franny is “missing out on every single goddam religious action that’s going on” around the house, like the consecrated chicken broth Bessie keeps pushing. He remembers a play she was in—how she shined, but hated the “unskilled laughter” from the audience and probably hated the ushers because they weren’t geniuses. “God knows it’s depressing” he says, but it’s none of her business; rather, “an artist’s only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, on his own terms, not anyone else’s” and “the only thing that matters in the religious life is detachment—desirelessness.” Probably recalling a quote on Buddy and Seymour’s wall:
“You have the right to work, but for the work’s sake only. You have no right to the fruits of work, Desire for the fruits of work must never be your motive in working” (177). —Bhagavad Gita

They both recall how Seymour would tell them to shine their shoes before going out on “The Wise Child”, even though the audience members were morons, to do it for “the Fat Lady”. This is the great secret, says Zooey, there isn’t anyone out there who isn’t the Fat Lady. And, the Fat Lady is Christ himself.

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Nov 13, 2007 Lindsay rated it 4 of 5 stars

One day last year I was hunting around the web for some factual anecdotes about J.D. Salinger drinking his own urine and stuff like that when I came across this semi-legit Salinger biography site. Just a straight up old fashioned Angelfire page, big boring blocks of Times New Roman and a randomly placed graphic here and there. But it had a lot of great information about all of Salinger's fetishes and neuroses, and I was really digging it all until I got to this little parenthetical aside where t...more

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Sep 08, 2007 Heron rated it 5 of 5 stars

I am of a certain group of people for whom high school ruined large swatches of literature. Dickens. I hate Dickens. I hated A Separate Peace. And I hated Catcher in the Rye. Why must 10th graders dissect literature to the point of obscenity? Can't we let a book be a book? Must we catalog every leitmotif, every metaphor down to the last period?
Franny and Zooey appeared on my bookshelf thanks to my well-read boyfriend, who did not let the public school system get to him in the way it got to m...more

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Jun 19, 2008 Alan rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Alooey would recommend this to Froanny!

While reading this, I realized i'd not finished it in high school. So damn brutally lovely. Despite that the characters collapse into each other. (Though his perfect details keep this at bay, unlike with, say, Ayn Rand.) Lovely, despite that what plot there is becomes a pulpit. Pulpit for the bitter, tender truth. So perfectly flawed. Like dostoyevsky, like Lady Chatterly's Lover. The flaws allow the voice to be so very direct, and so facilitate a more direct consumption of the the writing, a gr...more

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Aug 04, 2007 Eric rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: only those who really take an interest in Salinger's work.

Shelves: modern

Franny and Zooey is a book which chronicals the relationships between several members of the glass family as they attempt to cope with Franny's, seemingly willful emotional breakdown. The story features the theme of acting strongly, as both Franny and Zooey are actors in some right, and so a certain amount of dramatic irony is woven into the story through the presentation of the text. The entire narrative, while in short story form, almost reads like a play. The scenes that are set are extremely...more Franny and Zooey is a book which chronicals the relationships between several members of the glass family as they attempt to cope with Franny's, seemingly willful emotional breakdown. The story features the theme of acting strongly, as both Franny and Zooey are actors in some right, and so a certain amount of dramatic irony is woven into the story through the presentation of the text. The entire narrative, while in short story form, almost reads like a play. The scenes that are set are extremely contained and feature only a few characters who talk quite a lot a do very little. Their actions read almost like stage directions, sometimes having little or no purpose other than to shed light on the character's mood. This framing sets a tone for the story that is interesting, but not nearly as entertaining as some of Salinger's other works, for instance The Cather in the Rye.

The result of this is that Franny and Zooey is not the kind of book that you recommend. This isn't to say that I did not enjoy it, simply that if someone else is going to enjoy it is likely because they have read Salinger's other works and liked them enough to actively seek out more. And if that is who you are then you may appreciate the recurring themes in this story and the light that they shed on some of his other story's about members of the Glass Family. Here we see Saliger returning to themes like the lost innocence of childhood, Zen mysticism, and a specter of unintended pregnancy that haunts a few of his other works. I particularly enjoyed how the book helped me to understand some of the short works in "Nine Stories" by J. D. Salinger. In particular, A Perfect Day for Bananafish and Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut make more sense upon a deeper understanding of the Glass Family history.

Ultimately though, if you don't really like J. D. Salinger, and you don't want to browse through a hundred and fifty pages of Glass Family politics and a long religious diatribe by Zooey Glass, than this may not be the book for you. If you read The Catcher in The Rye and you want more, go read Nine Stories. Then if you still want more pick up Franny and Zooey and spend a few hours basking in Salinger's witty prose and stream of consciousness dialog. You just might even enjoy it. I know I did.(less)

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Dec 09, 2012 Jimmy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: year-1960s, novel, male

It reads so much like a play that I suspect the only reason it wasn't is that Salinger was scared shitless that it would actually be [mis]performed:

And if you go into the theatre, will you have any illusions about that? Have you ever seen a really beautiful production of, say, The Cherry Orchard? Don't say you have. Nobody has. You may have seen "inspired" productions, "competent" productions, but never anything beautiful. Never one where Chekhov's talent is matched, nuance for nuance, idiosyncr

...more

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Apr 20, 2008 Lucy rated it 4 of 5 stars

More of a play than a novel, Salinger creates two dissatisfied intellectuals and their fall out with convention resulting from their unorthodox education and childhood.

The book is divided into two parts: Franny's shorter section and a much longer section devoted to her older brother, Zooey.

Franny Glass, the youngest child of the fictional upper class New York family, breaks down after spending the weekend with her pretentious boyfriend, Lane. Lane seems to be the face of everything she decides...more

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Jun 28, 2007 viola rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2007, own

this might be repetitive. i already wrote this and lost it.
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three things:

one - the thoughts in this book make it exciting to read. i agree with most everything zooey has to say, and i appreciate having a chance to see a few things from a new perspective. the beginning was far more exciting before we spent another two hundred pages discussing the same ideas to death. all in the name of making us understand f+z a little better? maybe.

two - i read fiction for characters. i get attached to them....more

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Feb 19, 2009 Leslie rated it 4 of 5 stars

The ending to this story is absolutely beautiful, and the main reason to read this book (by ending, I mean the last 3 pages). I was recommended to read this by my partner (because he loved the ending too) and am glad I did. I've never really been a fan for Salinger's style of writing (in fact I kind of despised it), but I didn't mind this one as much as others I've read. It doesn't matter that the majority of the book is just a few conversations between family members or that nothing really happ...more

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Feb 05, 2009 Kristin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: classic, ya, adult-books-for-teens

For a while I claimed to like Franny and Zooey better than Catcher in the Rye. I might still. It's hard to say. This is a great dialogue between a brother and sister about what purpose and happiness mean. There are different theories about why Franny has a nervous breakdown... maybe she's pregnant. I think John Updike thought the Franny of the first part is a different person than the one in the second part. I'm pretty sure that's entirely wrong. Anyway.... I think Franny just gets tired of the...more

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Jun 15, 2011 Vicki G rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classic

I liked Holden Caulfied better than Zooey, but I'm not sure why. I think it has to do with the fact that Zooey calls his mother Bessie, and I have no understanding of why he would do that. But then, so does Frannie.
If anyone knows why that is, feel free to let me in on a possible reason. I can't think of any that make any sense. I mean he doesn't do it just to get under her skin, which was my first thought; that becomes apparent in the bathroom scene when he calls her Bessie even when he's not t...more I liked Holden Caulfied better than Zooey, but I'm not sure why. I think it has to do with the fact that Zooey calls his mother Bessie, and I have no understanding of why he would do that. But then, so does Frannie.
If anyone knows why that is, feel free to let me in on a possible reason. I can't think of any that make any sense. I mean he doesn't do it just to get under her skin, which was my first thought; that becomes apparent in the bathroom scene when he calls her Bessie even when he's not that upset with her. And even more obvious when you learn that Frannie, who's quite charming compared to Zooey, also calls her Bessie.
For the record, I don't hate Zooey either. Which surprises me b/c I'm the type of person who has a hard time seeing shades of gray in situations and especially people.
He's hilarious when he tells Bessie that he has the least number of problems in the family, b/c when he DOES have an issue, what he does is just invite people into the bathroom to talk to him while he's in the tub.
That was hilarious. I couldn't stop laughing through that bathroom scene.

Okay. This book is sort of confusing. For one thing, he uses all sorts of words I've never heard of. I'm not a college graduate. I have a 2-year degree in an area of study. One of the professors at my chosen school made a pointed reference to it, determined to let me know that my education doesn't qualify at the same level as a BA or BS, MS or Ph.D. I used to live with someone who had a Ph.D and he said there was an old saying for those letters BS, MS and Ph.D, which meant piled higher and deeper. The BS and MS are relatively self-explanatory if you begin with the BS.
However, I feel greatly inadequate in the face of words like jivanmuktas, bodhisattvas and arhats. I felt LESS inadequate after looking them up, b/c they refer to Hindu philosophy. Not everyone is educated in that area, but I also had to look up matriculating, which I'd never heard of even when I was matriculating myself.
I still like his style of writing though. He's got to be the only writer I've read; besides Kelly Braffet, Cherie Priest and Joe Hill; who doesn't think he's all that and a hundred dollar bill.
I wish more writers would write like Kelly, Cherie and Joe do, b/c I really enjoy reading a story for the story. (less)

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Sep 15, 2012 Rebecca rated it 3 of 5 stars

Maybe this is my favorite of the J.D. Salinger books.

Spoiler alert:

Favorite part-p201-Zooey tells about not wanting to shine his shoes for all the morons who wouldn't see them anyway. Seymour tells him to shine them for the Fat Lady. "He never did tell me who the Fat Lady was, but I shined my shoes for the Fat Lady every time I ever went on the air again. . . . I'll tell you a terrible secret . . . . There isn't anyone out there who isn't Seymour's Fat Lady. . . . There isn't anyone anywhere th...more

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Mar 08, 2008 Kat rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: recently-re-read

sometimes I just need a little dose of the Glass family to put life in perspective, so I'm re-reading this

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Sep 28, 2012 Settareh rated it 4 of 5 stars

وقتی فهمیدم که فیلم "پری" (مهرجویی) از روی فرنی و زویی ساخته شده٬ مشتاق شدم بخونمش.
داستانش٬ راجع به یه خواهر (فرنی) و برادر (زویی) ئه٬ که ۴ تا برادر (که دو تاشون مرده ـن) و ۱ خواهر دیگه هم دارن. دو تا برادر بزرگترشون٬ (که مرده‌ن) ظاهرا تو کار عرفان و فلسفه و ذکر و دعا و از این جور چیز ها بودن٬ فرانی توی اتاق قدیمی ِ اون برادر بزرگتر ها٬ یه کتاب پیدا میکنه که توش راجع به ذکر و گفتن و نتایج عرفانی ِ بی وقفه ذکر گفتن و اینا نوشته شده بوده٬ شروع میکنه به روز و شب ذکر گفتن٬ بی اشتها میشه٬ همش میخوابه...more وقتی فهمیدم که فیلم "پری" (مهرجویی) از روی فرنی و زویی ساخته شده٬ مشتاق شدم بخونمش.
داستانش٬ راجع به یه خواهر (فرنی) و برادر (زویی) ئه٬ که ۴ تا برادر (که دو تاشون مرده ـن) و ۱ خواهر دیگه هم دارن. دو تا برادر بزرگترشون٬ (که مرده‌ن) ظاهرا تو کار عرفان و فلسفه و ذکر و دعا و از این جور چیز ها بودن٬ فرانی توی اتاق قدیمی ِ اون برادر بزرگتر ها٬ یه کتاب پیدا میکنه که توش راجع به ذکر و گفتن و نتایج عرفانی ِ بی وقفه ذکر گفتن و اینا نوشته شده بوده٬ شروع میکنه به روز و شب ذکر گفتن٬ بی اشتها میشه٬ همش میخوابه٬ زویی هم سعی میکنه باهاش حرف بزنه و ببینه مشکلش چیه.
از ناتور دشت بیشتر دوستش داشتم ٬ نثرش رو خیلی دوست داشتم ٬ خود کتاب هم از قسمتی که زویی میره تو اتاق سیمور و بادی تا آخــر رو خیــــلی دوست داشتم٬ چیزایی که رو دیوار اتاق نوشته بود رو میخوند ٬ حرفایی که از پشت تلفن با فرنی زد و از همه حرف های دیگش تاثیر گذار تر بود٬ کلا خوب بود. دو بار پشت سر هم خوندم اون تیکه شو. فقط از یه چیزش خوشم نیومد٬ اونم این که همه شخصیت ها ٬ از اول تا آخر کتاب دارن سیگار میکشن! یک صفحش نیست که توش سیگار نکشن٬ حس خفگی و بوی دود سیگار بهم دست داد با خوندن کتاب! :د ولی غیر از این یه مورد ٬ خوب بود٬ دوست داشتم. :د
البته راستش اون ترجمه ای که من خوندم ظاهرا زیاد ترجمه ی خوبی نداره و اون ترجمه ای که نشر نیلا چاپ کرده بهتره ظاهرا . (less)

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Aug 23, 2011 Tin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: owned, finished-in-2011, above-all-else

Aaah, J.D. Salinger. I met a lot of people who read The Catcher in the Rye and think Holden Caulfield is their personal hero or think that he's the most cynical, shallow and pretentious person ever. Come to think of it, I'm probably in the former just because I read Catcher in the right time and in the right mood. Anyway, I'm not here to compare Catcher with this. Moving on...

I don't know what to think of this, to be honest. But there are things I would like to mention:

(1) The short story/novell...more

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Aug 27, 2010 James rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, lincoln-park-group

Rereading J. D. Salinger I am impressed with the books that his characters are reading. In the beginning section of Franny and Zooey, Lane Coutell is engaged by his classmate, Ray Sorensen in a brief interchange regarding Rilke's "Duino Elegies" which they both are supposedly reading for a class on modern European literature. While this is brief, merely an aside, reading and literature intrudes again within a few pages. Franny has arrived on a train and she and Lane settle in to relax at a cafe,...more

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About J.D. Salinger

Jerome David Salinger was an American author, best known for his 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye, as well as his reclusive nature. His last original published work was in 1965; he gave his last interview in 1980. Raised in Manhattan, Salinger began writing short stories while in secondary school, and published several stories in the early 1940s before serving in World War II. In 1948 he publishe...more Jerome David Salinger was an American author, best known for his 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye, as well as his reclusive nature. His last original published work was in 1965; he gave his last interview in 1980. Raised in Manhattan, Salinger began writing short stories while in secondary school, and published several stories in the early 1940s before serving in World War II. In 1948 he published the critically acclaimed story "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" in The New Yorker magazine, which became home to much of his subsequent work. In 1951 Salinger released his novel The Catcher in the Rye, an immediate popular success. His depiction of adolescent alienation and loss of innocence in the protagonist Holden Caulfield was influential, especially among adolescent readers. The novel remains widely read and controversial, selling around 250,000 copies a year.

The success of The Catcher in the Rye led to public attention and scrutiny: Salinger became reclusive, publishing new work less frequently. He followed Catcher with a short story collection, Nine Stories (1953), a collection of a novella and a short story, Franny and Zooey (1961), and a collection of two novellas, Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction (1963). His last published work, a novella entitled "Hapworth 16, 1924", appeared in The New Yorker on June 19, 1965.

Afterward, Salinger struggled with unwanted attention, including a legal battle in the 1980s with biographer Ian Hamilton and the release in the late 1990s of memoirs written by two people close to him: Joyce Maynard, an ex-lover; and Margaret Salinger, his daughter. In 1996, a small publisher announced a deal with Salinger to publish "Hapworth 16, 1924" in book form, but amid the ensuing publicity, the release was indefinitely delayed. He made headlines around the globe in June 2009, after filing a lawsuit against another writer for copyright infringement resulting from that writer's use of one of Salinger's characters from The Catcher in the Rye. Salinger died of natural causes on January 27, 2010, at his home in Cornish, New Hampshire.
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“I'm sick of just liking people. I wish to God I could meet somebody I could respect.” — 1,922 people liked it

“I'm sick of not having the courage to be an absolute nobody.” — 955 people liked it

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